Latest Resources
18 July 2024
Is Zambia’s food system collapsing?
Zambia’s collapsed food system: never-ending debt, climate shocks, biodiversity loss and FISPs – the indispensability of transitioning to agroecology In this briefing, we look at how Zambia is facing a gathering food crisis of serious proportions. Amidst repeated droughts and floods, energy rationing, and shortages of drinkable water, food prices are rising and millions are at risk […]
2 December 2022
Extractive tourism – a case study of biodiversity conservation in Tanzania, a legacy of gross hum...
This paper is part of a series of briefings by the African Centre for Biodiversity in the lead-up to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in December in Montreal, where a new deal – the Global Biodiversity Framework – will be finalised. In this paper, we deal with […]
2 December 2022
Civil society and farmer network organisations call on the South African Department of Agricultur...
This is the main thrust of the open letter we sent to Minister Thoko Didiza today, with Biowatch, Environmental Monitoring Group, the Association for Rural Advancement, and Tshintsha Amakhaya. So far 50 organisations have endorsed the letter. This letter is intended to push the Department to engage systematically and meaningfully with CSOs, including household and […]
2 December 2022
EXTRACTIVE TOURISM. A case study of biodiversity conservation in Tanzania, a legacy of gross huma...
This paper is part of a series of briefings by the African Centre for Biodiversity in the lead-up to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in December in Montreal, where a new deal – the Global Biodiversity Framework – will be finalised. In this paper, we deal with […]
29 November 2022
The changing nature of Kenya’s seed sector: lessons from the potato seed industry
In this paper, we discuss the changes taking place in the Kenyan seed sector, with a focus on potato. The changes paint an extremely disturbing picture of how draconian agricultural and seed laws and policies are undermining smallholder farmers and their seed and food systems. These laws and policies form part of the architecture that […]
2 August 2021
The violence of agrarian extractivism in Ethiopia
Locusts, state authoritarianism and webs of US imperialism We are pleased to share you with our latest discussion paper in our “Multiple shocks in Africa series”. We show how the locust swarms that hit the Horn of Africa over the course of 2020 were yet another in a series of shocks already battering smallholders in […]
28 April 2021
Bayer breathing life into Gates’ failed GM drought tolerant maize
Agrarian extractivism continues unabated on the African continent In this alert, African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) research and advocacy officers, Sabrina Masinjila and Rutendo Zendah, give insights into the development of a double stacked drought tolerant variety MON 87460 x MON 810, under the Gate’s funded project, Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), now known […]
2 September 2020
Push back against risky and unsafe RNAi GM cassava cultivation in Kenya
An unproven genetically modified (GM) RNAi cassava variety is yet another staple food crop, after maize and banana, on the biotech industry’s agenda for commercial cultivation in Kenya. The brazen lack of safety tests contained in the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation’s (KARLO’s) application for cultivation, and disregard for adherence to biosafety best practise […]
4 March 2020
More toxic GM crops & food for SA; Ineffective GM drought tolerant maize pushed on Kenya and...
In this first alert of the decade, African Centre of Biodiversity research and advocacy officers Linzi Lewis and Sabrina Masinjila provide an update on the status of GM activities, in South Africa and in relation to the region. Summary of current key trends The South African government has authorised field trials of 2,4-D resistant soybean. […]
25 February 2020
Insights from farmer dialogues in Kalulushi, Zambia
In 2019, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) co-hosted four farmer exchanges in Zambia. The first was in Kalulushi, Copperbelt Province, in partnership with the Zambia College of Horticultural Training (ZCHT) Chapula, Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC), and the Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB). ACB Advocacy and Research Officer Rutendo Zendah gives an […]